High Tide: From Commonwealth Games Arrests to Getting China to Sanction Iran

A roundup of corruption-related news from Dow Jones and other sources.

Bribery:

Mike Lucas

The U.K. judge who sentenced the Mabey & Johnson Ltd. executives gave a stark warning during the proceedings, saying that corruption convicts will find little sympathy during the penalty phase. More on the sentencing here. (Thebriberyact.com, FCPA Blog)

Businesses regulated by the Bribery Act, when it comes into effect, will face risks when trying to operate in the Middle East. (Financial Times Beyond Brics blog)

Any dilution of the Bribery Act would be “bad” for Britain’s reputation as a center for investment, investors warned. (Financial Times, sub. req.)

Lavish corporate hospitality events may be “off the menu” by the time the Bribery Act goes into effect. (The National)

How should corporate compliance programs adapt to the implementation of the Bribery Act, if at all? (Open Air Blog)

Three former North Providence, R.I. town councilmen and a businessman agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges in several schemes that included soliciting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to approve zoning changes. (AP)

Prosecutors sought to drop three of the 23 counts against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, saying they are redundant. Defense counsel said the dropped charges, which include counts of bribery, show he’s innocent. (FOX Chicago News)

Money Laundering:

Local coverage of the FATF decision to wait until June to review Argentina’s progress. More here. (Buenos Aires Herald, Antimoneylaundering.us)

The continued absence of a senator is holding up the passage of anti-money laundering legislation in Nigeria. More here. (234Next, Antimoneylaundering.us)

A Rome court revoked a house arrest order for Silvio Scaglia, the billionaire and Fastweb SpA founder standing trial in an alleged EUR2 billion money-laundering and tax-fraud scheme. Scaglia said he trusts the Italian justice system and his innocence will be shown at trial. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Don’t make it easier for dictators to steal, Anthea Lawson, the head of the Global Witness kleptocracy program, argues in a column. Lawson says the bigger question than how to freeze the money is what it is doing in French and Swiss banks in the first place. (Financial Times, sub. req.)

Sanctions:

Getting China to impose sanctions on Iran is the linchpin to an effective anti-nuclear weapons policy on Tehran. The main difficulty comes from the fact that China is one of the largest investors in Iran energy. (Foreign Affairs, sub. req.)

U.S. companies lobbied for years to keep Libya open for business, according to cables released by WikiLeaks. (Sunlight Foundation)

India’s prime minister defended himself in front of parliament as his government moves from scandal to scandal, while the country’s Central Bureau of Information arrested two top organizers of the Commonwealth Games on corruption charges. Attempts to reach the organizers were unsuccessful. (AFP, Wall Street Journal)

Speakers at a seminar in Islamabad, Pakistan stressed the need of an independent body to investigate corruption. (Pakistan Observer)

The pressure on a health care adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo grows as questions from ethics groups mount on whether he violated state law by not registering as a lobbyist, and failing to disclose his financing from his private consulting. Through a spokesman, the adviser said his work for clients has not fallen under the definition of lobbying under state law, but after the initial report on Tuesday, he pledged to freeze all his contacts with state officials on behalf of clients to avoid even the appearance of conflict. (NY Times)

Transparency International met with the European Investment Bank. (TI blog)

Corruption devours the Philippine armed forces 25 years after the people’s revolution, according to this long piece. (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism)

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Corruption Currents, The Wall Street Journal’s corruption blog, digs into the ever-present and ever-changing world of corporate corruption. It is a source of news, analysis and commentary for those who earn a living by finding corruption or by avoiding it. Corruption Currents is written by Christopher. M. Matthews and Sam Rubenfeld and edited by Nick Elliott.

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